Wave of killings mars election in Macedonia

Shortly after Besa Azizi opened her dental surgery in the northern Macedonian town of Tetovo last Tuesday, a young man entered her office and shot her dead. The man, a former patient, turned round and calmly walked out.

The killing came in the run-up to Macedonia's first parliamentary election since the end of the conflict last year between ethnic Albanian gunmen and security forces.

The vote, which takes place today, was meant to cement a year-long peace process, regarded by the international community as highly successful. Instead it appears to have exacerbated the dangerous tensions between Slavs and ethnic Albanians, amid evidence of spiralling lawlessness.

Shootings have become almost daily occurrences in recent weeks. Yesterday an ethnic Albanian gunman was killed in a shootout with Macedonian police, and two gunmen were injured in a shooting in a village near the western town of Tetovo, after gunmen attacked police who were also ethnic Albanians.

Besa Azizi's murder is a stark reminder that Macedonia is far from finding the peace and security that many of its people desire. Although inter-ethnic violence has died down, it has been replaced by mafia-style crime that threatens to turn the country into the 'Italy of the Balkans', according to some analysts.

During the past six months a law-and-order void has opened up in areas affected by last year's fighting. This in turn is being exacerbated by a government with close links to organised crime.

Like dozens of other crimes committed in the Tetovo region during the past few months, police say they know the name of Besa's killer and where he lives, but as yet no arrest has been made.

'This person has a criminal record,' said a colleague at Besa's clinic who gave his name only as Nexhat, and who spoke to the police shortly after her death. 'Four months ago he tried to kill someone and wounded them with four bullets. I called the police about that then, and they did not react.'

In the past three weeks, three policemen have been murdered, three people gunned down and at least seven people kidnapped in and around Tetovo. But in nearly all of these cases no arrests have been made.

International ceasefire monitors in the region say police have been unable to assert their authority since their return to former conflict areas last spring.

'They know who has committed the crimes,' said Andrew Venus, an observer with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Tetovo and a former Metropolitan Police officer. 'They are not completely divorced from society, but there does not seem to be the political will to arrest the people involved, for fear of re-sparking the inter-ethnic violence.'

The gap in law and order has allowed armed gangs to operate without fear of arrest.

The week before Besa's murder, some armed men ambushed a taxi carrying Ejup and Imerzidi Rustremi, two brothers who run a money-changing business in Tetovo. When their attackers found that they had no cash on them, they dragged Ejup to the ground and shot him through the head, and then sprayed his brother in the back of the car with bullets.

Refet Elmazi, Macedonia's Deputy Interior Minister and an ethnic Albanian, admits the police have a problem in former conflict zones. He says ethnic Macedonian police officers are not trusted enough by the local ethnic Albanian population after last year's conflict. 'What we need is team of special police made up of Albanians. If I had that, I know I could stop these groups,' said Elmazi.